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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26638954">i'll be your slaughterhouse, your killing floor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy'>smallredboy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cannibalism, Dark, Episode: s03e06 Dolce, Hannibal Lecter Loves Will Graham, M/M, Will Graham Dies, this one's weird folks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:35:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,161</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26638954</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Polizia does not show up, and so Hannibal is able to keep going with his plans.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Froday Flash Fiction Little &amp; Monthly Specials 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i'll be your slaughterhouse, your killing floor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>fffc's 100th special:</b> blood</p><p>title from richard siken's <i>wishbone</i>, which is a required hannigram read.</p><p>i have NO idea what just went through me, i wrote this in one sitting. </p><p>enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Blood drips down Will's forehead, and he spasms, eyes lidded, as Jack screams.</p><p>Hannibal doesn't reply. He doesn't doubt the movement, he doesn't mind the noise. He keeps sawing his beloved's head open, knowing this is the only thing he can do to fix all of it. Will's forgiveness had been dropped, why wouldn't his own be? <em>I have to eat him</em>, he had told Bedelia, with a certainty so strong he had wondered if he truly wanted to eat him for a second.</p><p>But he has always wanted to eat him. For a long time, seeing him was enough; it was nourishing enough, like a buffet, like a dinner party at the simple sight of him. But now, after all that has happened, the only way he can cross this bridge is by eating him. Eating the part of him he loves the most, too— his brain. The part that brought him to him, when Jack made him psychoanalyze him. After all, he is the culprit here, isn't it? This is why they're here. He thought they'd be a good match, and a good match they were.</p><p>"No!" Jack screams, at the top of his lungs, as he saws Will's head open.</p><p>Will has accepted his own fate, too, by the look of it. As much as he's drugged, he could've still fought back, or at the very least told Jack that he was beneath the table. He didn't do any of these things. He realizes that everything that has happened has taken them to this place, with his hand on his hair, petting him soothingly as he works through the motions.</p><p>He hasn't ever eaten a brain before. It's not a good idea, granted, as with the history of eating them has always been rife with disease. If he has that luck, he doesn't particularly mind. Dying because of love is beautiful. He never thought he'd die of it, but he's always quite enjoyed the notion in literature and art. Maybe he can get that very same fate.</p><p>When he gets there, when he finally manages to open him up, he's beautiful. Grey matter, those wrinkles, the way it moves still, spasms against what's left of his head... it's beautiful. He's breathtaking, something to be treasured; he wishes he could simply keep his brain, cage it, look at it throughout cold nights in Florence. But he knows what he has to do.</p><p>The story goes like that. Will dies by his hand, and he eats his brain, leaving the rest of his body intact. He will feed him bits and pieces of it, enough for him to taste himself. He will compliment his culinary skills before he gives him the finishing blow and continues with the rest of it. Jack will eat, whether he likes it or not. And then he'll give himself up to be taken back to the States.</p><p>His ideas go, for the most part, according to plan. </p><p>He grabs a fork and picks up a fried piece of Will's brain, of his prefrontal cortex, and gives it to him. Will is slobbering all over himself, the fact one part of his brain is missing making his body go wild. It doesn't matter, though. He helps him chew.</p><p>"How is it?"</p><p>"Delicious," Will says, speech slurred. "Thank you."</p><p>"You're welcome." He smiles. "Would you like some more?"</p><p>Will is dejected, given himself up to his fate. "Of course."</p><p>Dinner goes on like that. When he finishes with all that would keep Will alive, he stares at him for a second too long, doubts. He could just keep him going, couldn't he? But he wouldn't be the same Will. In fact, he would be so different he'd be unrecognizable. Ignoring Jack's protests, he gives him the finishing blow by removing the rest of his brain.</p><p>"I will go cook this, now," he says, rather lightly. "After that you can take me back to the States."</p><p>"Will you give yourself up after this?"</p><p>"Yes," he says with a simplicity unlike himself. "I have no reason to keep running now, Jack. Will is dead."</p><p>Will's slumped form regards them both in silence, his eyes blank, a peace unlike him in them.</p><p>After dinner is done, Hannibal does as he promised— he unties Jack and pulls the syringe out of his neck. He moves immediately, and Hannibal waits for him to be more comfortable after not being able to move for several hours. Once he's ready, he raises both his hands, and follows Jack out of the building. Mason might have bought the entirety of the Italian police, but they haven't bought the planes. He manages to leave Italy to the Stateswith Jack.</p><p>Months later, Alana regards him with a coldness unlike herself, as he's settled on his prison cell. The trial was an affair the entirety of the press took wind to, photographs and theories running wild as Hannibal said, without any hint of doubt or shame, that he had dined on his beloved's brain. </p><p>(And nothing else. That is the part that matters, see— he does not humiliate Will, he doesn't put him up, disfigures his body for a crime tableau the police will come to like flies. All he took from Will was his brain and his life. He refuses to do any more to him; he doesn't deserve any more than that. If he is to eat someone he loves, like Mischa, like Will, it has to be a quiet affair.)</p><p>"Why did you eat his brain?" she asks him, voice tight with anger.</p><p>He smiles at her. "Because it was the most beautiful part of him, Alana," he replies. "The most beautiful part of him deserved a banquet to its name."</p><p>She draws in a shaky sigh. "You loved him?"</p><p>"Yes," he says. "I loved him. I love him. I always will."</p><p>Will smiles at him, puts his hand on his shoulder. Even in this fantasy world, with his ghost, there is still a deep line cutting into his skull. The scars along Will's body because of him are numerous. He loves to mark him up like this. </p><p>"When you speak about eating the people you love, you not being given the chair because of <em>insanity</em> makes a lot more sense," she says.</p><p>"I am not insane," he replies. "I simply have a different concept of love than all of you."</p><p>Alana doesn't dignify that with a response, and so Hannibal can go back to his dream world, where everything didn't quite go so wrong.</p><p>Abigail and Will both smile at him, and everything is okay. He holds no regrets, as this is the only way it could have panned out, in the end— but he does dream of a world where two out of the three people he has ever loved are still alive and with him by their side.</p><p>He will join them, one day. And they will welcome him with open arms.</p>
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